"I knew I'd heard the name before." Bobby said, bringing out a couple of newspapers held loosely together in a folder.
Nico had left with Percy nearly an hour ago, leaving nothing behind but a piece of paper with a phone number on it. So far, nobody had touched it. Bobby had disappeared shortly afterwards, leaving Sam and Dean in the silence.
Sam took the folder from him, but didn't open it, still somewhat lost in his own thoughts.
"Where?" Dean asked.
"Back in '95. Remember the storm that covered nearly the entire nation?"
"I was twelve at the time." Sam said. "I remember it because Dad spent weeks after the event trying to figure out why it cleared so suddenly."
"Well, there was more to that. A kid was accused of killing his mother, and fled cross-country before they could question him. Way they framed it, it seemed like he was a terrorist. His name made big news for those couple of days. Then his mom appears, storm clears up, and that's the end of it."
"I'm hearing two things here: Percy Jackson was a kid-murderer, and he caused that big ass hurricane." Dean said.
"Theoretically." Bobby said. "But nobody ever followed up on it. As for the storm, I thought that might've been the Typhon that Percy was talking about."
"Where are you pulling that from?" Dean asked. "That's a pretty wild deduction."
Sam wracked his brain, trying to remember what, if anything, he'd heard about the legend. The name was familiar, for sure, but he just couldn't remember it–it was lurking just out of reach.
Bobby waved vaguely in the direction of the stairs. "I got somethin' up there on the old gods. Typhon, Typhoeus, Typhaon, whatever. He's got a lotta names, but all signs point to violent storms, winds, eruptions. Think of typhoons."
"And nobody noticed?" Sam asked. He remembered it dimly, but all he could recall was his father's confusion afterwards, not during. During the storms, he had just assumed that they were under a run of bad weather.
He remembered rain hitting the windows of nearly every place they stayed at, John driving them the same directions as the storms. It had felt like weeks of endless downpour, and it cleared up so suddenly it had seemed unreal. Apparently, it technically was.
"It was hard to." Bobby said. "The idea keeps tryin' to slip my mind. If I hadn't had my attention pointed to it..."
Sam's mind flashed back to something Nico had said. "He said we're behind the mist. What does that mean?"
"Hell if I know." Bobby snorted. He glanced again at the small piece of paper sitting innocuously on the table. "But the best thing we can do now is brush up on our Bible Studies. I'm guessing there's more than just the Witnesses at work here."
Dean looked less than thrilled at the idea of cracking open dusty tomes. "I don't suppose you need to restock on anything, do ya?"
"Go out for a drive, whatever." Bobby said. "I'll be here."
Dean left silently, slipping away out the front door. It wasn't long before the rumble of his car started up.
Sam had no idea where to go next, regarding not only the situation, but also... How was he supposed to proceed from this? There wasn't exactly a 'my-boyfriend's-back-from-the-dead-for-dummies' he could peruse. Back from Hell, if he wasn't mistaken. All because he was supposed to lead a demon's army, in preparation for...this. Sam had damned Percy to Hell just by existing around him.
He should just pick up that stupid little phone number and dial, but even thinking about it made it seem like a Sisyphean task. So it'd been an hour, and nobody had touched the damn thing.
"I'm going to call," He decided, verbalizing the thought so he would feel more held to it. "I'll be outside."
Bobby eyed him sadly, and didn't say anything.
He took the paper and left, feeling nauseous with anxiety. He had left the room mostly because he couldn't stand the awkward tension that had been created. This was a very delicate situation, and he felt like he was standing on top of a skyscraper but the railings were gone. If there was a merciful god, it would be Nico that picked up the phone. He wouldn't know what to say to Percy, but at least with Nico he could try to pretend everything was… not as fucked as it was.
He sat down in one of the cars, partially shielded from the harsh sun, though not as much as he would've liked.
The phone rang five times before someone answered, and that was enough to increase the anxiety.
"Who's this?" A hushed voice asked. It grated on his ears a bit, tinny and wrong. Was his phone acting up?
"It's, uh..." Sam cleared his throat. "It's Sam."
"Why are you calling?" Nico said, still speaking at a low level. Sam could barely hear him.
"You left the number." He explained awkwardly. "And… I still have questions."
On the other end of the line, there was a soft noise, and Nico cleared his throat. "This isn't exactly a good time."
"None of this is a good time." Sam said, irritation providing weak confidence. "According to both you and Bobby's apocryphal texts, the end is coming. Hell, an actual angel said it."
"Oh, is that all?" Nico snapped. "We're working on it. You should get off your ass and help, maybe."
Sam bristled at the comment. Nico seemed so dismissive of him, and he couldn't figure out why. Well… He could guess. Nico was overprotective, sure, but Sam couldn't parse out his relationship to Percy. Either way, though, it was obvious what his distaste was centered on.
"We have next to no information. What do you suggest we do?"
"For now, keep sitting on your ass. Today has been enough."
Was Sam imagining it, or was the air around him chilling slightly? It was probably (hopefully) just the sun going down.
"I don't unders-" Sam silenced as ghostly fingers brushed across the back of his neck. He focused his attention on his periphery, not moving. But Bobby's yard couldn't be haunted, right?
"And when were you talking to an angel, hmm?" Nico said.
Sam swallowed. "I haven't, but the angels were the ones who got my brother out of Hell."
"Is that all." Nico said, tone completely flat.
Sam was getting… really intimidated. Fear was creeping slowly up his spine, and the air around him seemed unnaturally still. He steadfastly held on to the thought that Bobby wouldn't abide a ghost in his yard, but it seemed harder and harder to maintain as the seconds went by.
"Call back tomorrow. You don't have anything for us now, and I certainly am not in a sharing mood." Nico said, hanging up the phone before Sam could even get a word in edgewise.
The cold air dissipated, and Sam immediately thought of Nico's presence earlier, how he seemed to carry an unnaturalness with him. The realization that he could project it over the phone, though, was nothing short of heart-stopping. It bespoke of something almost… eldritch.
He stood standing there as the sun sank down, trying to catch his breath and quell a burgeoning feeling of despair.
"Excellent job with the Witnesses." A voice behind Dean intoned.
He turned around to see the angel, Castiel, looking at him with an unreadable expression. "You were hip to all this?"
"I was, uh… made aware." Castiel said. "And things beyond the Witnesses were a matter of interest as well."
"You're talking about the demigods." Dean said as blankly as he could, trying not to show how unnerved it made him feel. To be talking to demigods and angels… hunting monsters was one thing he knew, and he knew it well. But to just be having conversations with something that was so markedly inhuman threw him far out of his depths.
Frankly, he was doing a great job in just avoiding lunging for a weapon.
"Yes."
"What do you know about them?" Dean asked, almost outright demanding. If the angel had answers for them, then hopefully they could get a real direction. A lead on the two of them would prove invaluable.
"More than you." Castiel said, somehow coming across as gentle and condescending at the same time, though his tone was flat. "But they are of their own realm."
"Yeah? And what does that mean?"
"Big things are afoot, Dean. The angels are walking the earth again for the first time in two thousand years. We did not walk when their gods rose, nor did we interfere when the world was nearly destroyed. That was their world to save. And now, they're helping with this one."
"You're saying, what, that they're dimension-hoppers?" Dean said, not really following whatever it was the angel was trying to emphasize.
"No." Castiel said blithely. "They had their own problems to solve, and Heaven never interfered. And now, we haven't been able to understand what they stand to gain, joining in this war."
"About that." Dean said, switching tracks for a moment. "What is this war against? Why are angels 'walking the earth' for the first time in millenia?"
"Think of the Seals as locks on a door. One by one, they are breaking."
"Great." Dean said. "Thank you. But what happens when this door opens, huh?"
"Lucifer is freed."
"Lucifer." Dean said, wondering if he was actually losing it. "The Adversary. Like from Sunday school."
"Three days ago, you didn't know of my existence. You didn't know of demigods. This isn't a big step." Castiel said.
"It's a pretty damn big step. I'm not exactly ready for the earth to get charbroiled by a sulking archdemon."
"Angel." Castiel corrected. "He's an archangel."
"Even better." Dean said, sarcastically. "So we've got the world ending because the demons are freeing Lucifer, and interference by two wayward demigods that you know so much about. And what, is Heaven just sitting on its ass as we run around trying to pick up the pieces? Did the Witnesses even die -like, permanently?"
"We are not your personal army." Castiel said roughly. "We're spread thin as it is, trying to protect the seals. Six of my brothers died this week."
"So what are we supposed to do, huh?"
Castiel suddenly looked sour, which was the most facial expression Dean had seen from him yet. "The demigods are going to be either our greatest ally, or the most urgent problem to be dealt with. You have to make sure it stays the former."
Dean was about to protest, but suddenly he was alone in Bobby's kitchen, prepared to yell at an empty room.
Great. The angel got to dip when he decided the conversation was done, and Dean didn't even manage to get a straight answer out of him.
Bullshit angel.
A/N: One thing that i've been idly tossing around for some time, something that didn't get addressed really in the books. Like, these are kids of gods, right? So shouldn't they be sort of...human adjacent? Like they're half human, sure, but they're half powerful mythical being. They shouldn't just be bland peoples. Gah, i dunno. Somewhere on instagram i had a post saved about unnatural avengers, and i really liked it. It wasn't even outlandish, it was stuff like vision being….vaguely robotic? Idk i'll get back to you on that
Also i'm totally using this: (/)p/CHYSAdcJNI2/ like thank u tumblr for beautiful headcanons
Hahaha found the marvel post! :) (/)p/Bm92L5_HRmJ/
yeah just lose the parenthesis